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West Pointers remembered at Laurel Grove

Stephen Berend

Elizabeth Piechocinski, president of the local chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy, delivers opening remarks during a ceremony Sunday at Laurel Grove Cemetery restoring the grave marker of Confederate soldier Maj. Joseph L. Locke, who died in 1864. Joe Dawson of the Sons of Confederate Veterans acted as Confederate flag bearer.

Stephen Berend

Attending Sunday's grave marker dedication ceremony for Robert W. Pooler were, from left, retired Maj. Gen. Leroy N. Suddath, retired Col. George J. Stapleton, retired Maj. Dan Mension, and retired Lt. Col. Bruce Nichols. All four are West Point graduates, as was Pooler, a lawyer and state legislator for whom the city of Pooler is named.

Stephen Berend

Confederate re-enactor Richard Hicks, a member of the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, participates in Sunday's grave marker dedication ceremony for Maj. Joseph L. Locke.

Stephen Berend

Confederate re-enactor Michael Wheless of the 8th Georgia Infantry plays Taps during a grave marker dedication ceremony on Sunday for Robert W. Pooler at Laurel Grove Cemetery. In separate ceremonies both Pooler, for whom the city of Pooler is named, and fellow West Point graduate Maj. Joseph L. Locke were honored.

Stephen Berend

James Ray, commander of American Legion Post #36, was the American flag bearer during Sunday's grave marker dedication ceremony for Maj. Joseph L. Locke. Locke, a West Point graduate who at one time edited a newspaper in Savannah, died in 1864 fighting for the Confederacy.

One was a native of Maine who fought and died for the Confederacy.

The other was a lawyer and state legislator for whom the city of Pooler is named.

Both were graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and were buried at Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery but in graves that no longer were marked.

That was rectified Sunday.

Under threatening skies that eventually gave way to some sun, plain marble headstones were dedicated for Maj. Joseph L. Locke and Robert W. Pooler.

Locke, who earlier had lived in Savannah and edited a newspaper, returned from Europe in 1862 to fight for his adopted Southland and died in 1864.

Pooler was rewarded for his feasibility study of a railroad line by having a station named after him. The area eventually evolved into the city of Pooler. He died in 1853.

Each man was honored with a separate round of speeches and placements of wreaths and flags. At the end of each ceremony, the air filled with the smoke from volleys fired by Confederate re-enactors and the bitter-sweet strains of taps.

Several members of West Point Society of Savannah participated in the ceremonies. The group took charge of restoring the gravesites after learning the markers were missing.

But, although only Locke fought in the Civil War, both events bore heavy overtones of Confederate nostalgia.

At each observance, 50 or so attendees were invited to recite pledges not only to the U.S. and Georgia flags, but to the Confederate flag, too.

And some did.

Speakers said Locke graduated from West Point in the same year as Jefferson Davis, later to be the president of the Confederacy. And he was a year ahead of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

When "Dixie's Land," was played, tears rolled down the cheeks of Gayle Dawson, a leader in the local United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Wearing a period costume, Dawson said 22 of her ancestors fought for the rebel cause.

"My heart bleeds for the South and what it went through," she explained later. "I know it was invaded. It really weighs heavily on my heart."

No one explained how it was that Locke, a Maine Yankee, came to side with the gray against the blue.

Local historian James Mac Adams speculated that it was less surprising in an era in which loyalties were stronger to states than to the federal government.

Most folks knew the latter, Adams added, primarily as the agency that delivered mail. So it was easy for them to view northern forces simply as invaders, he said.

Members of Confederate heritage groups rejected any notion that it's time to quit dwelling on their long-lost cause.

"Nothing is ended until it is forgotten," said Elizabeth Piechocinski, president of the local Daughters of the Confederacy group.